001Okay, good afternoon everyone. Part of my voice, sorry I've been fighting this for a little while but we'll push through and get everything done this afternoon. So we certainly appreciate you joining us for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Business Affairs Transportation Center for Shard and Local Schools. I'd like to take a moment recognize the members of our Board of Education starting with our Board President Karen Blankenship, Board Vice President and President Andrea Clark, Board Members James Maguette, Todd Albright and C.J. Patternetti certainly appreciate them being here this afternoon and joining us for this for the event. I'd like to ask that you please stand and join me in Pledge of Allegiance as we begin the ceremony. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which
002it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. So as we begin the ceremony for this afternoon I'd just like to give you a little bit of the background. This is a seven million dollar improvement project for Shard and Local Schools, one of the most significant capital improvement projects that our districts undertaken in a very long time and it's the benefits that are going to be derived from having this facility in our community and as a part of our school district are really significant in terms of how we've been operating a school district for a number of years. What we are able to do as a result of the work that's been done here on Washington Street is centralize all of our business operations and transportation services, IT, food service operations,
003warehousing, maintenance of all of our fleet vehicles and so on and it's important to underscore that those various offices, I've been in the district now for 13 years, Steve they've moved half a dozen times during and have been required to move throughout our district and really had no stable home and when you think about that that's pretty significant given the investment that we have in facilities in our district in fleet vehicles and so on and the importance of being able to to truly maintain that taxpayer investment in a consistent and professional manner. This facility is going to enable us to do that. Among the other improvements that we are already seeing, the benefits that we're seeing is improved traffic circulation around the Sharpton High School area. If you've ever been in that area either at
004the beginning of the school day or the end of the school day you know what a challenge that can be and by moving our fleet vehicles out of that area we've enhanced that traffic flow significant in the community. As I mentioned a permanent home for all of those key business operations offices in our district but most importantly it's the ability for all of those services that people don't typically see. They don't see food service, they don't see transportation kind of front and center every day but they're integral to us being able to deliver on our mission in our school district which is our commitment to high achievement for all students and this will allow each of those offices to professionally deliver those core services that are so important to our students and our staff each
005day. A little bit of an overview of the facility. I know you saw a little bit of that as you arrived here today but I'm going to walk you from Washington Street all the way to the back of the facility. Out the front of the building we have all of our fleet vehicles, parking area, we also have fueling stations and so on for all of the vehicles whether they be diesel, gas and so on. As you came in to your left there was a what looks like a parking lot but it's actually a training lot for new drivers into our district so it gives us space for off not off-road training but off-the-road training for new drivers and experienced drivers that are working in our district to again make it more accessible for individuals to
006join our staff and be an important part of that. This building that we're in will this north section of the building where we're at will house all of those business operations so primarily transportation. We're actually in the drivers kind of their meeting room, training room, break room area that it serves them each day, dispatch services and so on. As we go down the center hall we'll be providing some tours in a few minutes. We have our food service operations, our IT center, our IT repair and maintenance area, warehousing and the south end of this building will be our all of our maintenance operations so everything from you know what all of our tools and that type of thing to maintain all of our school facilities. Moving farther to the east the back building behind us
007is dedicated to the maintenance of all of our fleet vehicles. We'll take you through that on the floor and I think you'll be really impressed given that in the previous area that we had adjacent to Chardon High School we can actually bring in two vehicles to maintain it at any given time. I think comfortably we can fit about nine vehicles in the current space so in addition state-of-the-art equipment I know our mechanics have been very appreciative of the capabilities that they have in that site. So just a few thank yous at this point. Certainly a project of this scope would not at all be possible without so many people working to make it a reality and deal with all the things behind the scenes and first I'd like to thank certainly our Board of Education
008for their leadership commitment to this project. They saw the vision of it and were steadfast as we work through the process. Our design and construction partners then design architecture is represented here this evening and also Millstone Construction Group. As you can imagine the project of the scope and especially taking on two existing buildings and renovating them is significantly different than doing new construction and they were certainly great partners through that entire construction project. Our Treasurer CFO Deb Armbruster and Assistant Superintendent of Business Affairs Steve Koffel. Their leadership and commitment to the project they were the individuals that made sure that we stayed within our budget and made the adjustments that were necessary to deliver the type of facility that we envisioned for our staff and community. Our Transportation Director Josh Schnell who's actually out doing
009something right now and not in the room but Josh and also our Supervisor Andy Caballero. They along with our exceptional team of vehicle operators and mechanics provided so much input and time and contributions to the planning of what you're going to see in this facility and that is certainly very much appreciated and shows in the design of this facility. Our maintenance department under the direction of Chris May who's here with us they participated in so much of the behind the scenes in terms of the little details that we needed to hit the construction schedule and assist Millstone and TDA where appropriate and also just being integral to the transition from the existing facility into this new home and took care of so many details as we worked along. Our IT Director Bill Nels and our
010Food Service Director Brett Schauer, they both played important roles in terms of the design and transition into this space including the significant technology footprint that we have as we transition here. Again the City of Chardon and also Geauga County for their assistance in working through the many project details that we had to work through in order again to make this project a reality. Most important we want to thank our community for their unwavering support of Chardon Schools. Their commitment to everything that we do here is so important and hopefully this facility will stand as a testament to to that support. With that we would like to and see if there was method to the madness we brought inside so you could stay warm instead of standing outside in 15 degrees but we are going to
011pop outside just very quickly for the ribbon cutting and ribbon cutting will be a little bit unconventional if you will. We're going to ask our Dean of Terries that are with us and joined us from the city, Mr. Dvorak and so on, our Board of Education members and so on to hold the ribbon but the ribbon cutting is actually going to be done by a school bus. So we're going to drive a bus through the ribbon. Now for those that have the ribbon you have a very important job. Let go. Let go. We don't want any unfortunate accidents with someone holding on to the ribbon. Yes, well we have cones for that. No scissors so you will just drop the ribbon as the school bus goes through. So with that, again thank you for joining
012us. If you go out this door down the center hallway all the way to the end in the maintenance area, I think Steve Coughill will leave the charge down the hallway and we'll go right out by the way of the building. The December 15th, 2025 regular meeting of the Chardon Local Schools Board of Education is called to order. This meeting is being held in accordance with section 3313.15 in the Ohio Revised Code. Deb, would you please call a halt? Mrs. Blankenship? Here. Mrs. Clark? Here. Mr. Albright? Here. Mr. Medjot? Here. Mr. Patternitti? Here. Welcome to the December 15th, 2025 regular meeting of the Chardon Local Schools Board of Education. Prior to this meeting each board member received for the review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's consideration
013via the Electronic Board of Education Agenda System Board Docs. The public can access the agenda through the district school district's website one day prior to the board meeting. Pursuant to Board of Education Policy 0165, this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education and Public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There are two opportunities for public participation during the meeting as indicated in agenda items designated as public participation. Board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and chief financial officer for information concerning agenda items and to request, if needed, additional information. Upon request to the superintendent, the district shall make a reasonable accommodation for a disabled person to be able to participate in this activity. This meeting may also be
014replayed for later viewing on the GTV network and video on demand site. The Chardon Local School District is not responsible for the video and audio quality or future availability of such recording. Okay, so first thing on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. We have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, Deb, would you please call the roll? Mr. Paranetti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Midgett? Yes. Okay. With my motion, Deb. Okay, sorry. I can't see down there. Sorry. We're in a straight line so it's harder. Okay, the next thing on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. The board tonight is going to be led by Pledge of Allegiance by 5th grade Chardon Middle School student
015Hayden Patternitty, 7th grade Chardon Middle School student Amelia Patternitty, and 7th grade Chardon Middle School student Paige Patternitty. They'll be leading the Pledge of Allegiance tonight. So if you'd like to join us up here. Whenever you're ready to start us off. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So stay up here, girls. Okay, so in recognition of 7th grade Chardon Middle School student Amelia Patternitty for your contribution and commitment in serving as the Board of Education's Pledge of Allegiance leader on the 15th day of December 2025. Which one's Amelia? Then we have in recognition of 7th grade Chardon Middle School student Paige Patternitty for your contribution and commitment in serving as
016the Board of Education's Pledge of Allegiance leader on the 15th day of December 2025. Paige? In recognition of 5th grade Chardon Middle School student Hayden Patternitty for your contribution and commitment in serving as the Board of Education's Pledge of Allegiance leader on this 15th day of December 2025. So thank you, each one of you, for coming and joining us tonight. We appreciate it. If you could turn around so we'll get a little photo opportunity there. Thank you, ladies. The mission of the Chardon Local School District, we commit to high achievement for all students. Okay, that brings us to the first hearing of the public for agenda items only. We have none. So it takes us to the consent agenda. Thank you, Madam President. We have five items for you to consider this evening. Item 3.1
017is approval of minutes as detailed in the associated enclosure. Item 3.2, approval of the warrantless check pay report as detailed in the enclosure. Item 3.3, approval of administrative certified license, classified supplemental, and noncontractable personnel and compensation related items as detailed in the associated enclosure. Item 3.4, approval of the 2526 Hilltopper ticket rates for 2526 as detailed in the enclosure. And finally, item 3.5, approval of an out of state overnight field trip, actually trips, for the Chardon High School Ski Club as detailed in the enclosure. So I'm recommending the school. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, would you please call it all? It was C.J. and Mr. Albright, correct? Correct. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Bikenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Midgett?
018Yes. She's waiting for me. Our next item is a report from our student liaisons. And so with that, we have Nathan and T.J. with us this evening. Good afternoon, everybody. First off, we have a little presentation for you. It's been happening this past month at the high school. But we want to start off with a little holiday cheer and have you guys play a game of who can spot the difference. Who wants to join in? Who can spot the difference here? We got the Santa hat, the candy cane, the snowflakes. Yes, yes, yes. All right. So on November 25th, we played our annual staffer senior volleyball game. This was how we kind of get ready for the Thanksgiving break. We had a special assembly schedule for this. This year, the staff won against the seniors.
019It was a really close fight. But next year, the seniors will win. Always. So the Model United Nations team at the high school sent 37 delegates to the Cleveland Council on World Affairs autumn conference at Case Western University. On December 5th, the high school hosted the Armed Forces Career Fair. There were groups and services such as the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, local state troopers, police and fire departments, and many more. The men and women that operated these tables got to demonstrate their skills and their service to their country to kids of all grade levels at the high school. So this past two weeks, we've done a lot of fundraising over at the high school and a lot of competition. So Jeremy's Kids is a foundation to benefit the Giaga job and family
020services. So we've had a competition going on of our paper chain competition, as we like to call it. So we have collected money from the students first period and kind of made a challenge to win donuts because who doesn't want donuts? So we raised $2,000 just from classroom collection. Then we raised $3,300 online. And then AC4P donated $10,000 of their money. And the Boozer Family Foundation out in Canton donated $1,000, which sponsored the paper chain competition. So incredibly, incredibly, what's the word I'm looking for here? Grateful. Successful, grateful, grateful for everyone. And an incredibly successful fundraiser that we did. And then lastly, we had our battle of the classes winter edition. This is something we do every year. But to promote some holiday cheer and spirit going into the break, we decided to hold it
021a little bit early. And this year, the seniors won for the third time in a row. And hopefully, we'll win it again in March, giving us a 4P. So with that, we want to say thank you. And from Chardon High School and all the board liaison officers, have a happy holidays. Thank you. We'll move on to our superintendent's report this evening. I have a few items to share with the board. I think I'm losing my voice, so that's probably not a bad thing. It'll make sure that we expedite this. Just want to report quickly that the tennis court project, based on weather conditions at this point, most of the work there has been shut down. And we'll wait until the weather improves. We are going to try to get a few things done before or
022during the winter season, but most of this will just pick up at that time. The Future of Education initiative that we've launched in partnership with the school districts in Geauga County and ESC, the Western Reserve, basically school leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about the future of public education, specifically what it looks like in Geauga County. And the choice of the General Assembly to essentially not fund the fair school funding formula, combined with property tax legislation and proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate property taxes, all of these have the potential to significantly undermine the resources that are needed to deliver exceptional programs that all of our school districts provide. Specifically, the elimination of property taxes will have a profound impact on the resources that we have, given that many of the school districts are at or near
023the minimum funding floor for state support, and we rely heavily on property taxes for day-to-day operations. We are convening a working group of superintendents, treasurers, board members, community members, to begin unpacking what it's going to look like in our district in the wake of property tax elimination, should that come to pass, with at this time no clear-cut revenue replacement solution. We plan to have open discussions about what the future might look like, and there will be certainly some challenging topics that we need to address from production and services to potential consolidation to just a variety of things as we try to explore what revenue replacement, all of those are going to be things that we discussed. I found this chart that Deb and I found from another presentation to be pretty interesting. We hear a
024lot from the legislature that we are pumping significant dollars into public education, but actually this graphic speaks a little bit of a different story. If you look at around 2003, you see the red line and the blue line diverging. That's where Ed Choice first started in the state of Ohio, and then we see the Ed Choice expansion. Essentially what you're looking at is the blue line reflects the total spend from the Ohio state budget, inflation adjusted for education in the state of Ohio, but the red line reflects what public school districts are receiving. What you can see is that really in the last 20 years, which is what we've been testifying to frequently, the large portion of the increase has gone into Ed Choice option, voucher options in the state, and the increases in expenditures
025toward K-12 education in the state of Ohio are not necessarily benefiting public school districts. It's an ongoing challenge and something that we're going to, and this will be a cornerstone of what we have to address in that working group. Finally, just a reminder that the last day for students is this Friday, December 19th, and classes will resume on January 5th, and we certainly wish all the members of our school community a safe and enjoyable holiday season. So with that, that concludes Superintendent's Report. I don't know if there are any questions. If not, I'll proceed on. Second item that we are sharing, and we think this is great news because, you know, so often we hear from our communities, well, you know, school district needs to operate like a business. And in fact, we do operate
026in many respects like a business and explore opportunities to save dollars. As the board is aware, we're members of the Ohio Schools Council, which is a collaborative of several hundred school districts and other non-public entities across the state to aggregate purchasing, everything from school buses to electricity to natural gas to a variety of other resources that we use in our school district. This graphic reflects the savings for Charlton Schools for fiscal, I'm sorry, fiscal 25, calendar, school year 24-25, at $331,000 in savings due to our membership in the Ohio Schools Council. And it outlines for you in the handout, this is a two-pager, the projected savings that we have from the various programs that we participate in. We certainly think that's an important success story and one that our community should know about. With that,
027that wraps up Superintendent's Report. Moving on to item 5.2, this is our teacher spotlight. Tonight we have Shera Culleton and Haley Chaston, who are going to talk about their participation at the OMLA Conference and also their Christmas Carol Unit. So with that, ladies, if I could ask you to go to the podium over there so that we capture everything on the mic. I'm Shera Culleton. I teach seventh grade English at Shera Middle School and I've been here for 30 years. And I'm Haley Chaston and I teach seventh grade ELA alongside Shera. This is my sixth year in the district and my twelfth year teaching. We've been teaching together for three years now and one of the things that we had a love and a shared vision of is passing on our love of reading to
028students. One of the things we do at the beginning of the year is start off with a parent survey, trying to figure out what kinds of things and goals we want to work on. And one of the increasingly more common comments that we've seen over the past couple of years is parents saying, when we ask, what do you want for your child to get out of seventh grade, is a love of reading, to become a lifelong reader, to be better at reading, to just read for enjoyment. So a lot of the units that we've developed over the years developed around the idea of giving some kids some choice in reading and getting them excited about reading. So this led into our OMLA presentation where middle school teachers across the state were able to come and
029watch us present and share how we run our independent novel units and got them excited to use some of the strategies that we implement in our classrooms and have them take it to theirs. We've been in contact with a lot of the teachers who were there watching us present, which was really exciting. We had over 70 people attend. So it was a full house and that was really exciting for us to be able to collaborate and share and pass along our excitement and the knowledge that we've gained over the past couple of years with our novel units and all the things that we do. So right now we're in the midst of our Christmas Carol unit. So we read the play in class. And so to help kids build some background, we've over the years
030acquired and compiled a list of different novels that fit the time period of the Victorian era. So students picked a novel and one of the final projects that they start they're doing, they're finishing their novels tonight, hopefully. But last week they worked on writing a resume from the perspective of the protagonist in their novel. So the evidence that they collected to support their, you know, why they deserve this, why they were applying for this job came directly from the things that they were reading in their book. And then we had high schoolers, seniors who are in a life skills class right now preparing to go off and do interviews themselves came down last week on Thursday and we had the kids do mock interviews. So they asked our students their questions, they had to introduce
031themselves, tell why they thought, you know, what job experience they had that came from their novel and then why they should be chosen for that job. And so that wrapped up last week and it was just a really great experience I think for both the high schoolers and the middle schoolers. And then the unit culminates after we've built the background knowledge with the independent choice novels. We read A Christmas Carol together as a class so we get to do all the parts, the kids love to read aloud and employ that information that they've gained from their novels and to see it throughout the play. And then we culminate with going to see the play so on Wednesday we'll be going downtown to Playhouse Square with the kids to see it on stage and so they
032can see it translated from classroom to production and they're very excited today. We went over, you know, dressing up a little nicer and we showed them how opulent the theater is and there were a lot of oohs and aahs and we're very excited to take them downtown and get out of the classroom and use some of the education that we've been building. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Great. Our next item is item 5.3. This is the capital improvement plan presentation. It will be equally as exciting and engaging as what our teachers just presented. I guarantee it. But with that I will turn to our assistant superintendent of business affairs, Steve Koffel, who will present the capital improvement plan. I will say before Steve starts, it's interesting to me that a number of
033school districts now are basically joining in and creating capital improvement plans because it's within the budget. Because it's with the discussion around cash carryover balances and so on. It's become kind of an expectation that districts have these. We've been doing this for a number of years. Steve and Deb have worked very hard to keep that capital improvement plan current. And so with that as a backdrop, Steve, I'll turn it to you. I'll try to make it as fun and interesting as the share in the middle school there. So this year's capital improvement plan has a lot to offer. First we'll go over a brief overview of what it is, kind of like we do every year. Explain what we can spend it on. And then go over some of the projects that we've completed and
034then some of the projects we have planned for the future. So what are we allowed to use the permanent improvement money for? This is the 003 or permanent improvement levy that we collect. The permanent improvement items with anticipated lifespans of at least five years. Acquisition, replacement, enhancement, maintenance or repair, including preventative maintenance. We cannot use the money for Jan San materials like day-to-day cleaning materials and things of that nature. That is not what the permanent improvement money is used for. Where does it come from? It comes from a voter approved property tax levy that was passed in 2006 for two mills. And since that two mill passage has now been reduced to 1.39 mills, because as the years go by, the millage amount can only collect the amount that it was passed at at the
035time, which was 2006. So that equivalent is 1.39 mills currently, and it generates just over $1.3 million per year. So revenues, where it comes from, we have the general property tax. We have public personal property, homestead and rollback, manufactured homes, sale of fixed assets, transfers in donations, miscellaneous, and the P.I. TAN, which I'll talk about here in a minute, and the TAN loan interest. The TAN loan was from when we did the roofing project, which was four years ago, five years ago now. Yeah, it's been a while. We lose track of time. So that will be sunsetting probably, I think it's in the next four years, 2030. So once that falls off, then that $411,000 that we're paying for those roofs currently will then go back to the P.I. or be less of an expenditure
036to the TAN and will go into the P.I. for other projects. Expenditures from the Permanent Improvement Fund. A lot of things come out of it. Auditor's fees, preventive maintenance, legal advertising, professional services, new and replacement equipment, and building repairs and construction. This building that we are in now, a lot of it came from the P.I. fund. Expenditures. I'm going to go a little bit more in depth in this because this basically spells out not only over the next five years, we have some history up there from 2003, fiscal 2003, but it also breaks it down by where that money is being spent by facility. So I will go through and kind of highlight some of the things into the future to kind of show you what those numbers are going to be attached to for
037projects-wise. So for the district, we kind of have the reoccurring things from year to year. Auditor's fees, district-wide purchase services, new equipment. That includes custodial equipment, maintenance equipment, maintenance vehicles, security equipment, and technology. So you can see over the years from 2006 to 2030, those items obviously increase over time because of the cost of things going up. I do want to highlight some things that will be coming up out of that fund. Maintenance vehicle purchases. How many of you went through Building B and saw that gold van on the lift with rust holes in it about that big? That's kind of what about two or three of our vehicles look like. They're being subject to the Northeast Ohio winters in the long periods of time that we make those vehicles stretch. We also have in
038there some technology that was purchased through Bill Nels, our technology director, which is going to include staff Chromebooks. They've been waiting for those, so those will be coming in 2027, as well as student rounds of Chromebooks too. Some projects coming up in the athletics, and you will see that, you can see this line here, which goes across through. We have the new tennis courts, which are being funded primarily through a generous grant from a donor. Those are being constructed in the Alcan area behind the middle school. Also, once those are completed, we'll be looking at doing some improvements to the old courts and turning those into some pickleball courts, as well as one additional tennis court down there. We also have in 2029 and 2030 some improvements to our track, which will include a new
039time clock replacement, as well as a resurfacing of that facility. Chardon High School, we have projects that are on the horizon for Chardon High School. We just finished a window project there this summer. We continue to do approximately five to six classrooms of baiting floor tile, replacing floor tile, and when we do that, each time we also paint walls, we change out all the switches, electrical outlets, basically do a complete refresh for the rooms, so when the teachers and students come back in August, those rooms are refreshed top to bottom. We're also looking at doing some purchasing of the hot water tank at the high school that is moving along in its years and will need to be replaced in 2028, as well as doing some renovations with the cafeteria and restroom fixtures. Not really
040crazy stuff, but stuff that needs to be done just because of the age of the fixtures themselves. Moving on to the middle school, we're looking at some paving projects in the future. We're doing, again, just like the high school, about five to six classrooms with the baiting the floors, the floor tile, replacing those tiles, as well as painting in electrical switches and outlets. We're also looking at doing some ceiling replacements in mass. Those are big ticket items into the six figures, $200,000, and that's just to kind of tackle the main sections of the hallways, and that would be replacing the tile, and in some places we'll have to replace the ceiling grid as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't look new like the one above your head there. And then equipment, we plan on purchasing in 2029-30,
041classroom furniture replacements, and it's about $50,000 will get us about five classrooms worth of furniture, which includes student desks, a teacher desk, filing cabinets, and bookcase. Moving on to calc, we have some pavement repairs that will take place in 2028. We have some additional doors that need replaced. If there's only two or three doors in that entire building that need replaced yet, the rest are all complete. Floor coverings, we did an entire section of the lower part where the pre-K was a year ago, and now we're just kind of moving up the hallway to the other rooms that they use for their support services. They will also get some additional playground equipment, and then calc will need a boiler replacement in 2030. Again, another big ticket item, $260,000-ish. Moving on to park, we spent a
042lot of money at park over the past couple years, and we'll be continuing. The windows on the west and south sides will be hopefully getting replaced this winter, and then the north and east sides hopefully in the summer slash fall. We'll also be looking at doing a roof replacement on the auditorium in 2027, doing some additional floor work there as well. Luckily, most of the park building has the wood floors, so we're looking primarily at hallways. Munson, again, with some abatements for flooring. We'll have some parking lot work in fiscal 2029 with the teacher lot and the rear sidewalk. That's the tune of about $140,000. Transportation, we continue to keep on our rotation of school buses, purchasing three one year to the next to keep the fleet fresh and making sure we have the safest
043vehicles we can put our students in for transport. We also are purchasing a van each year. Van prices and bus prices, as you can imagine, have exponentially increased in eight years. When I first started, they were about $80,000. Now they're about $125,000 in climbing, and we really don't get our buses outfitted with many, many options. We try to do base buses that way we get them sooner and, of course, most cost effective. How long does one of our buses stay in rotation? So it's every about 12 years. 12 years? And it's not the miles that make our buses go away. If you looked under that bus that was up on the lift next door and saw that nice brown rust, that's pretty much what's causing it. We are hoping with this new facility, and it
044pays dividends off because we will be installing a bus wash behind the building B, so that will help with getting road salt off from underneath. We did purchase, prior to putting the whole facility back there for the bus wash, we did purchase an undercarriage wash. So we're using that now just to kind of blast everything off the bottoms. Being also able to park on concrete is really helpful as well instead of on a damp, gravel parking lot, day in and day out. That's going to help maybe extend the longevity of some of these buses and help prevent some of that rot that we experience all the time. We were just told on the tour that the buses can't be undercoded due to ODOT regulations, something I didn't think about before. Yeah, and we can't just
045do what we want with buses. They're very stringent on exactly what can be on that bus. And then if we want to do, like when we put the new technology, the tablets on those buses, we had to get clearance and talk with OHP about how to secure the mounts to the buses to make sure that it met safety standards so the tablet doesn't turn into a projectile if that bus was a slam on their brakes. They're very, very stringent, as they should be with what we do with them. Any questions in regards to your upcoming projects or this particular slide? I'm just amazed that you've projected out five years. I mean, I know we've done this for a while, but it'll be interesting to see those numbers in the future. Where we actually are and
046what we can do. Yeah, it's certainly challenging, especially in the fact that, like my earlier slide, we collect the same amount we collected in 2006. We all know that a dollar in 2006 dollars doesn't buy the same a dollar in 2025 dollars. So, yeah, grants help supplement some of this stuff. We go after and chase grants, which is extremely helpful. Yes? If I can point out, Steve, on the bottom you see the total expenditures are $2.788 million. That ties directly in with the budget. So that's another thing that's really important about this plan is next year's budget, when Steve and I sit down, I'm expecting to see $2.3 million. And then when I go to do the tax budget with the county, I can go right to this document and say, here's our estimate for
047revenue, here's our estimate for expenditures. And I think another important thing you kind of touched on it, Steve, is this is just the 003 permanent improvement fund. In his plan at the end ties in all the 07-L money, all the general fund money, all the grant money that we've also used for... So when you're projecting like the 2.3s, that's just our permanent improvement money. If we wanted to be above that 2.3, we'd have to move it from somewhere else. Or we'd have to use it from a different fund. Or change priorities. And I'd point out that the board moved it inside Millage, was it two years ago now? So that's bringing over roughly $100,000. 963. 963, thank you, Madam Treasurer. So again, that's money that's been in the PI fund that we've been using to
048obviously do acceleration of projects. But again, prices of things and prices of services constantly are moving. And unfortunately, it's always up. And it all depends. What part of the world you're getting your parts from is how fast you can get them and how much they're going to go up. It's just a fact. And in the bottom line, as you can see, Steve is budgeting almost every penny he gets. That's revenue minus expenditures. And he's leaving very little on the table at the end of each year. And still handling pipe bursts and stuff like that. Yes. Go knock on wood with how cold it is right now. We don't talk like that. But yes, we cover that. So I'm going to just mention some notable projects that we've completed. Obviously, the phase two that we're sitting
049in right now, that was last year. The security vestibule, it's at the high school. Many of you have been through. We did a window project at the high school. Again, floor abatements, front sign. Tuck pointing at park. That's been a multi-year project just because the amount of things that they ran into when they started removing the brick, what they found. So that, unfortunately, got split between last year's and this year's. But again, they will be starting back up on that masonry project the day after school lets out. And will be finished before school starts. Again, the new buses, windows at Kelk we did last year. That was a door project. And then doors at Munson. Twenty-six projects. Phase three is what we're sitting in right now. And you can see the dollar amounts there. Maintenance
050vehicles, again. The tennis court project, which was a majority of generous donor. Baseball field upgrades. That would be to our JV field, since we own that field. Windows and doors at the high school. That was a pretty big project we finished this past summer. Additional floor and tile abatements. Masonry work at park again. That's the second half. The security vestibule at park. Really proud of that one, because that was the last building that got the project. The most difficult to make one fit. But I'm pretty pleased with the way that came out with getting parked up to the bar. Everybody, all the other buildings with the safety and security. North playground friends at Munson we just did in the fall. And then some playground equipment at Kelk to fit the youngsters there and pre-K a
051little bit better. I think it's important to point out with the windows and doors. Part of the doors is a state mandate. Correct. We had to replace doors. Correct. So it wasn't like a wish list or something. It was a state mandate that we had to do. Yeah. If our doors fail, then we need to do repair, replace. So we've been on top of it and making sure that our number one safety and security and number two for economically. We're not losing the heat. All right. Again, I'm going to remind the board that this is a planning tool. I know everybody says, oh, five years out, yeah, it changes like the first two years are pretty solid and locked in. After a year or two, it can change drastically. Just like when Deb does her
052five year forecast, the changing landscape that we constantly live in forces to allocate projects, bump them up or push them back. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that, yes, this is a plan, but it's a plan that's revisited and reviewed every year and it changes. Completed projects. Again, these are high school ones and the dollar amounts. Middle school, Park, Munson, the Early Learning Center, Transpo, and Washington Street. And we broke out the permanent improvement costs and the general funding costs. And hopefully we should be getting, did we get our, not yet. What was the dollar amount on that grant? $483,000, but we get $430,000. $430,000 grant that we put in for the demolition of this site. So those are some big numbers, but $430,000 is still $430,000. These are the things I
053talked about earlier regarding the technology and the dollar amounts we're spending towards that. Do you have a, is it always two grade levels every year? Is there a cadence for replacing the Chromebooks? Yes. It's two grade levels a year? Yeah. We finally got that on a nice rotation. Of course, COVID threw a little wrinkle in our replacement plan as it did with the many other plans that we had, but we're back on track. So two grade levels a year is what we're shooting for. Well, arguably they get a new Chromebook every six-ish years? So it's four and eight, I believe. Okay. Yeah, grade's four and eight. My seventh grader was saying they get a new Chromebook next year, so that would track that. Every year, that's right. Okay. Don't be patient. I'll get it. Her
054Chromebook now is fine. All right. Again, these are projections. This is a living document, and we're constantly reviewing it. To Todd's point, if something goes south somewhere, we may have to adjust certain things and prioritize other things. So it's kind of like the old adage of trying to nail down a little ball of mercury on a table sometimes and just chase it around. But we do the best we can, and I have an amazing team that I work with. They contribute to this as well, and they make it happen, so I'm very grateful. Any questions? I just want to say thank you. I think this is something that when we started it however many years ago, it was a great thing to present and to see how things progress. You're very welcome. Thank you for
055doing this. My pleasure. You and Deb. I know you guys put a lot of work into this. Oh, yeah. It's a lot of work. There's also hot links in the presentation if you want to dive in the numbers deeper and see them in more detail. That's my favorite part. That's your favorite part. The rest of us don't need to follow through. Right, yeah. The rest of the year. You're good. Steve, can you go back to the fiscal year 2026 slide? The spreadsheet? Yeah, the one with the different line items. That one? No, I think it's the one after that. The one on the projects in 2026. That one? I think you mentioned you're labeling tennis courts as 158. Right. I think that the 158 is for the parking lot, right? The tennis courts themselves were
056donated entirely. Correct. The donation for the tennis courts was $1.234 million, I believe, and that area is for the parking area adjacent to the tennis courts. Okay. And there's a small amount for design. Right. And that's going to be in front of the stadium, basically? Correct. Directly across from... So everyone's going to use that parking area? Yes. There'll be approximately 30 spaces. Yeah, it's not just solely for tennis, but we had slated that area for parking. And so we decided that the parking made sense there. It'll be used for the tennis competitions as well as help alleviate for Friday night lights as well as Saturday and Sunday events. Which we know we need help there. We always need help with parking, yes. Thank you. So hearing no additional questions, we do need a motion and
057a second to approve the capital improvement plan for the district. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? Okay. Debbie, please roll. Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Medjot? Yes. And Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members. I am recommending approval of affiliation agreements with UH and TriPoint for our student job training program in the district. I am recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. James? James, a second. Who did the first? Todd. Todd. Okay, perfect. Any questions or comments? Would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Medjot? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. And Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members. Board next item is item 5.5, approval of a consulting agreement on behalf of
058St. Mary's School and Julie Billy Art School. I am recommending approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. James? Second. Andrea? I like that. Do we have any questions or comments? Would you please call the roll? Mr. Medjot? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members. Board next item is item 5.6. This is board policies on second reading and recommendation for approval. I've received no feedback on these policies, excuse me, since we presented them for first reading. These are all basically transportation-related policies and these changes are in conjunction with the current state of law. So, therefore, I am recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? Would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blakenship?
059Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Medjot? Yes. And Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Board policies on first reading. These have been reviewed by the district's leadership team. We will be scheduling a meeting with the Superintendent of the Point of Policy Development Committee, but felt that it was important to proceed with these because many of these policy revisions are tied to the budget bill, House Bill 96, and we need to make sure that these are consistent with the expectation of the law. And many of the changes are being driven by changes in Ohio Revised Code. So with that, again, there is no recommendation for action this evening. Members of our community would like to comment on any of the drafts. They're all available here, and I'd be happy to answer any questions
060if you have them. Any questions tonight? Hearing none, that concludes my section of the agenda for this evening. Okay. Deb? Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. First item in my agenda is 6.1, which is the Treasurer's CFO Report. I have a link to the November 2025 financial summary, and of course I have an AI movie cast in there too, if you would like to watch that later. We always look at the reconciliation. We ended November with $24,447,000 in the bank. It was booked to bank, sort of. We did have a pesky $48.68, so we're still searching for it. We'll find it. The next report we look at is a cash summary report. We always look at the third column from the right. We look for negatives, and yes, there are some. Permanent improvement.
061We know the money is coming in. January is going to be an advance. February is a second advance, and March is our final settlement. That'll bring us right back out of the red. The next one down is our 022, which is basically our workman's comp fund. We actually post after every payroll, and it brings it up. So I kind of made a little note over here last month when we did this, it was $30,000. Now we're at $21,000. So it just keeps coming out of the red a little bit after we post every payroll. I highlighted the 031 fund in green. This is an underground storage tank fund. So we are looking at removing the storage tanks that are behind the high school. So we'll be using, you know, it's going to cost a lot
062more than $11,000, but we will be exhausting this fund when we remove those tanks. Next is our 070 fund. Although it's okay here, after our open purchase order, we are in the negative. We did receive half of the donation up front. We will be receiving the other half of the donation actually very soon. And then the next one I always talk about is our 401 is auxiliary services, which is basically St. Mary's funding that passes through our books. We get TrueUp or we get their final payment in February, and then of course there's the grants where we use first and then we're reimbursed. So how did we compare to our spending plan in November? Pretty good. We collected $59,000 more than anticipated, and we're $28,000 under budget. So this is an $88,000 positive effect on
063our cash balance. If we keep running at this, our cash balance will end about $16.5, and it shows on the bottom last year's was $16.9. So we are deficit spending, our cash balance is decreasing, but not by a ton. So this is for November. These are actually the numbers that you just saw, the $59,000 and the $28,000, and it kind of shows the breakdown over to the right. And the extra revenue actually came from billing of transportation. So if you recall, this year, and it's just a pass between funds, when athletics uses our transportation, we're billing, and athletics is paying the general fund. So it shows extra revenue, but then there's also extra expenditures. It's basically a wash, but it's going to help us better track our athletic costs, the athletic fund. And then the
064$28,000 under budget, we were just a little bit over in salaries. We were under in purchase services and under in all other expenses. The month of November, we received $807,000. Last year at this time, it was $600,000, and that's primarily, you can see we collected a little bit more in taxes, a little bit more in state, and a little bit more in other revenues. So it's a little bit of everything that grew that number. Expenditures, we spent $2.9 million this year, and last year we spent $4.4 million. Last year was a three-pay month, and we always talk about these. And those shift usually between November and October. I know this slide looks a little different, but I found this new AI button that says beautify your slide, right? So I had to press it. So
065this is my annual number. To the left is how much revenue we've received all year, a little over 18, almost 19 million. It's up from $480,000 at this time last year, and our expenditures are at $15602, and they're down almost a million from last year. This makes complete sense. Our state revenue, we knew that it increased with some of the extra things that was put in for the performance bonus and such. And last year we spent a lot more on our capital outlay that we are not spending this year. So it makes a lot of sense that we're spending less this year than we did last year. Again, our salary slide, I beautified it. We've got a little star and a glow. So here we are in November 2025. And then this, I went back
066to our breakdown where you have teachers and classified. Our monthly salary is $1.7 million. So far this year we've spent $8.9 million, completed 11 to 26 pays. We're really right on target for our annual estimate. This is our days of cash, again, beautified. General funds, $20 million, $130 million, but after open purchase orders our cash balance is dipping now to $17,498. And if we look at this bottom left, here we are, we're going to see our cash balance keep dropping until January when we get our advance. And then we're going to start seeing increases again as we get our next collection. We're at 101 days after open encumbrances for our two days of cash. Food service, we did deficit spend, $54,000. Our ending balance is $511,479. The red is $25,000. The blue is fiscal year
067$26,000. So you can see from the revenue, we're collecting more than we did last year. And you look at the expenditures, we're spending more than we did last year. I mean, that's very typical. Prices have increased. But again, our goal, and this is why we haven't raised food prices in two years. In fact, we reduced them last year because we want to have about $300,000 in this fund at the end of the year. And once we get to that point, then we'll start increasing lunch prices appropriately. Permanent improvement actually lost revenue. That's just because there was an adjustment from 2025 from the auditors. Typically, we're at about zero revenue for November. But on the expenditure side, we spent $264,000. Year to date, we're almost at $2 million. And this notable expenditures this month were phase
068three transportation payment, furniture for this area, which you guys can see, tennis court construction, and music instrument repair, which does also come out of the PI fund. Lastly, we'll look at it in our health insurance fund, which is our 024 fund. And I'm just so happy to announce that our new reserve amount is $1.9 million for January. We thought it was going to be like $2.2 or even closer to $2.3. This was actually a very good month for our self-insurance fund. We were up, or we had a surplus of $200,000. And then starting in January, I will pick up our new reserve amount, and then we can compare where we are. But we're much higher than we were last year. The fund looks great. Everything's in a good place. Are there any questions on the
069financials? I hope you give Gemini a break every now and then. I do. I do. Well, it's interesting, because I use Gemini as a tool. Like, I never ask it to do it for me. I do it first, and then I ask it to summarize or revise or make bugger. And in that way, it's an amazing tool. Since Deb is showing off, next month I'm going for a complete virtual meeting. Yes? Okay, I have another, this is just a very brief report with a long video. So I'm going to apologize in advance. But I wanted to do a quick legislative update. So these are all the bills that are, and I don't think he signed them yet. They're still sitting on the governor's desk, but the 10-day clock is ticking right now. They'll automatically go
070into whether he signs them or not. Yes, whether he signs them or not. So as I have told the board before, HB 129 at this point in time doesn't affect Chardon. We're not on the 20-mil floor. Same thing with HB 186. It caps revenue growth, inflation for 20-mil floor school districts. Right now, Chardon is not on the 20-mil floor. HB 335 does affect us. It caps our revenue growth to inflation for inside mill for all entities. I read some numbers. It's about $50,000 a year, but it does affect our revenue. And HB 309 gives the county budget commission the authority to override voter-approved levies. So at tax budget time, the budget commission can say, If you have too much money, we're going to reduce your revenue. And lastly, I just threw at the bottom, is
071House Bill 124. This gives the county auditor, he can modify property tax sales and ratio studies. So he can lower things if he sees fit on values. So here's the video, and this is Senator Blessing who's in a district. Down in Cincinnati, and he has an amazing outlook. So we're going to take a moment and watch the video. Do we have sound? I don't think you do. I don't. And we tested this. I have a backup. Before getting into that, I want to acknowledge how hard Chairwoman Sandy O'Brien has worked in this space. Property taxation is one of the most complicated policy areas in Ohio. It is a Byzantine network of state laws, constitutional divisions, court cases that also happen to be directly influenced by two other very complicated areas. One of which is housing,
072which Senator Reynolds is deeply familiar with, and school funding, which Senator Brenner is deeply familiar with. You can disagree with the policy outcomes all you want, but what is not up for debate is her work ethic, courage, and perseverance. I respect her deeply for that. As well as representatives who have worked on this the most, Representatives Thomas and Romer. This is also true of the staff and folks at LSC who are probably ready for this to be done so they can grab a well deserved drink and think about anything other than property taxation. I get the sense that everyone is tired, wants to move on, and talk about anything other than property taxes. After all, it has dominated discussion for at least two years now. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the end, but the
073end of the beginning of the property tax fight. These are clever bills, but let's take a step back and look at what they're implicitly saying. Ohioans want property tax relief. It was the valuation increases from the triennial appraisals that increased property taxes, especially for floor districts, though inside millage also had a significant impact. This led to a revenue windfall for local governments, especially school districts. Therefore, we are going to legislate in such a way as to claw back these increases as they were not voted on and limit future increases on the 20 mill floor and inside millage alike. This will solve the problem. I don't believe that this will solve the problem. Implicit in this is that school districts, for example, are flush with cash and do not need the money. Have we examined if
074this is objectively true? I'll give you some reasons that I don't think that it is. Ohio has had high property taxes for some time. According to LSC using FY 2023 numbers, Ohio ranks 15th in per pupil, public, elementary and secondary school local revenue. Only Pennsylvania is higher when looking at our surrounding states. However, we rank 37th in per pupil, public, elementary and secondary school state revenue. We're behind all of our surrounding states, so much so that if we had done the entirety of the Fair School Funding Plan in FY 23, we'd still be the worst of our surrounding states, slightly below West Virginia. Interestingly enough, when you add up state, local and federal dollars, we're right in the middle at 25th amongst the states. Given that public education is the largest state-only share of the
075state budget as well as the largest share of local property taxes, it stands to reason that if state support is lagging, it will be made up elsewhere since federal funds are such a small share, the burden falls increasingly on local property taxes. We Republicans pride ourselves as fiscal conservatives, staunch defenders of every taxpayer dollar. Have we taken the time to look at our local school boards? Though they are nonpartisan, I'm willing to bet the vast majority of school boards in this state are Republican-dominated, even after the results of the election this past month, or during this month, I should say. We have 607 school districts in Ohio. The urban eight school districts are heavily represented by Democrats, likely representing a quarter of the state's population or more. But what of the other districts? Given that
076Republicans dominate county offices to the tune of 80 to 90 percent, it would be entirely believable if Republicans held at least two-thirds of the school board seats in this state. Is it really true that Republicans are fiscally conservative at the state level but not at the local level? I don't buy that. I think the most likely answer is that school boards are better with money than they're given credit for. What about high cash reserves? How does one justify cash reserves over 100 percent? And there are school districts that do have cash reserves over 100 percent. From my perspective, quite easily, and the behavior is quite rational. As mentioned earlier, state support of public education is lacking compared to the rest of the country. Federal revenues are a drop in the bucket. That's not unusual. So
077local revenues have to make up the difference. Unfortunately, it's not so easy. Since everything outside of inside knowledge in the 2004 must be voted on, and our Constitution applies tax reduction factors, schools have to go to the ballot to raise needed revenue. But voters can and do shoot levies down. It is this uncertainty in revenue that drives school districts to keep larger cash reserves. This allows them to weather a failed levy cycle or two while dealing with the same rising costs that all of us deal with. I could go on, but you get the picture. I believe the net effect of what we are doing today will be the following. First, we're going to see an increase in the number of levies over the coming years, accelerating as cash reserves are spent down in any
078state-level temporary support like the expanded sales tax holiday Monday dries up. Second, we'll see more districts in fiscal watch and fiscal emergency. When it becomes harder to raise local revenue, this is a likely result. There's also a threat at the federal level to cut Title I funding, which would put more pressure on some school districts. Third, local governments and school districts will direct their ire at the state when they go to the ballot. Fourth, bond ratings for local governments and school districts will go down. Fifth, services will almost certainly be cut if levies fail to pass. Sixth, what happened to simplicity? This definitely complicates the property tax situation. And lastly, and finally, this didn't work in the late 70s and early 80s when House Bill 920 was enacted and the tax reduction factors were put
079in the Constitution. That was to avoid unvoted tax increases then, and we're doing something similar now. In the following decades, we simply voted on more levies. Why would we expect a different outcome today? If all this is correct, what does a long-term fix look like? I really think it's as simple as boosting state-level school funding. Nobody likes to go to the ballot to ask for new money. So I think it's more likely than not school districts would choose renewal levies for the foreseeable future if we did this. They'd also go to the ballot less often. That's because they could more fully count on state dollars. And their constituents would rightly ask why new money is needed when the state started pitching in closer to their fair share. Over time, the state and local funding split
080would reach a healthier ratio. As for the local side, I would encourage folks to look at land value taxation. I know I sound like a broken record. It's probably the tenth time I've mentioned it today. It's currently constitutionally prohibited, but I'm looking to change that with SJR 7. We need more housing, but added supply helps our local governments and schools as well from a revenue perspective. This grows the pie and spreads the tax burden amongst more people. Unfortunately, property taxation has the perverse side effect of discouraging more housing. Land value taxes, however, encourage more housing as well as density. I think it's eminently reasonable to conclude that property tax rates would go down as tax revenue in the aggregate goes up while local governments and school districts phase in land value taxes and phase down
081property taxes, allowing local governments and school districts to directly vote on the rate of taxation, would increase bond ratings, lower cash reserves, stop the levy cycle, and produce better governance overall. After all, this is how the General Assembly operates today. Ditto for local governments and school districts in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Why is this good for the goose, but not for the gander? So, at the end of this, you know, I understand that school districts and local governments are going to be upset. I would urge the local governments and schools to take stock of what's going on, and rather than be angry, pivot to longer-term structural fixes. In next year's budget, you will have to work with the General Assembly, whether you like it or not, irrespective of how you feel about the reforms today, but
082a lot of what we're doing today is short-term. A lot of what we're going to need to be doing is long-term, and I hope that we will all work together on that. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I think my understanding, and Mike and Deb, you can correct me on this, some of these House bills are temporary. So, correct? The ones that are going to be signed, they're not necessarily long-term, right? The net effect is going to be a short-term fix and then a longer-term problem. Right. But I'm just saying that, you know, people think that, you know, some of this stuff is going to continue, but I think the bills are written to be short-term. I think Senator Bussing understands schools. That's what I really like, this message. And he understands how these bills are
083going to affect us and what it's going to do. The school funding work group has been working with, we work very closely with Senator Bussing for years now. So, and I would concur with that. He made some very good points in that video, so thank you for sharing it with us. So, part of the presentation, and you already saw this chart earlier, so I'm not going to, you know, go over the detail again, but it just shows the separation. The state is still giving money towards education. It's just less to public education. And you can see the divide. And then the end of this presentation, this is just, you know, our governor, our House Speaker, our Senate President, and then on the last slide, our contacts. So if anybody wants to contact our legislator and,
084you know, tell them how they feel about these types of bills, the contact information. So that is it for that presentation. And any questions? Okay. I only have one lonely item, 6.2. 6.2 is very generous donations as detailed in the associate enclosure. I am recommending for your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Once again, thank you to our community. All these donations are greatly appreciated. Deb, would you please call the roll? And I apologize. Mr. Albright, did you do the motion? Yes. And the second was? Me. Okay, great. Thank you. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. Medjett? Yes. Mr. Paternitti? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? That concludes my section. Thank you. Thanks, Deb. Okay, that brings us to the Board of Education reports. Chardon Foundation. Andrea? I believe
085the grants are due this Friday before winter break. So if you have a teacher who wants something through the foundation, make sure they complete the grant. In the past year or so, they haven't even had to do a Zoom interview and an in-person interview. It seems to be easier. So reminding them that that is there and easier is an option now. And hopefully in January I can present what they're going to try to grant money for. Thanks, Andrea. Legislative, Todd? Well, you guys knocked that one out of the park so we can just pass on that one. Colorful slides and everything. I was going to say it would be really good to call legislators, utilize the numbers on there. But you guys, what they're planning and trying to do really doesn't make a whole lot
086of sense. And then going on to the Auburn report, the Christmas dinner got snowed out for the second time in a row. So I just don't know how good that food is. It's maybe not going to happen. I'm just going to plan for it to be a blizzard. Time, there you have that meal planned. Just plan to have a snow day. Just say no. It's looking like that. They are in the midst. We are in the midst of a treasure search again, round two. Hopefully this will go faster and actually be successful. We'll see. It's getting harder and harder to find treasures. They are in the midst of many different renovations. And I want to encourage everybody here, everybody on the board, and superintendent and treasurer, you can be a student for the day. If
087you reach out to the superintendent of Auburn and actually see what goes on during the day and the things that they're doing, it's pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to do that yet, but I do want to do that. So they are facing also the same struggles coming up. But they have managed to set aside, I believe it's about $400,000 to bring tech education into the middle school grades here, which is going to be rolling out this coming year. So that's exciting as well. That's it. Thank you, Todd. Student staff liaison, James. Thanks, Karen. So thank you to Mason Cole and our communications department for preparing the stories, pictures, presentation. He does a great job. He's here this evening. I don't think it's working, Deb. Do you got it pointed at me? Oh. Is
088it on? Oh, yeah. That was the issue. So Chardon High School recently hosted its second annual military and first responders career fair. Students who attended got a firsthand opportunity to engage directly with a wide variety of career possibilities as well as engaging with experienced professionals who work in the military and first responder fields. Thank you to the organizations who came and interacted with their students, including the Army National Guard, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Chardon Fire Department, our sheriff's department, State Highway Patrol, as well as representatives from Auburn Career Center and Lakeland Community College. And over at CMS, the students recently learned all about having a great heart literally and figuratively as part of their Heart Day celebrations. Students heard from parent and guardian volunteers who work in various career fields
089associated with cardiovascular health, including nurses and doctors who work with cardiac patients. They also completed fun crafts and spent some time working through stress relief measures. And I'm guessing this is an annual event, the Q&U wedding. I remember reporting on this last year. On the 25th of November, Munson Elementary held its Q&U wedding, a fun event which teaches students about the relationship between the letters Q and U in spelling. Students had a great time dressing up to represent every letter of the alphabet. The Q&U wedding featured splendid guests, including the letter Z, a mouse, princesses, even a pterodactyl. Thank you to Judge John Eklund, who served as officiant for this fun event. I remember last year it was Dr. Hanlon. I was able to successfully hand that off. Did you feel replaced? I always thought
090you did a great job. These Hilltopper Elementary students recently had the opportunity to collaborate with real ocean scientists, including Chardon alum Dr. Melanie Cone and the Teal Ship crew as part of their November 12th expedition. Students had the opportunity to submit questions to researchers from the North Carolina System Schools Collaboration, funded by the University of North Carolina System Research Opportunities Initiative. These scientists answered our students' questions and even allowed them to design a foam cup to be submerged and crushed by water pressure at the deepest stations of the Gulf Stream Transact. The use of water pressure to crush foam cups is a tradition among oceanographers to create a memento from each expedition. Thank you to the Teal Ships crew for allowing our Hilltopper students to take part in this awesome tradition. And finally, this evening,
091the CMS recently held its Spelling Bee Competition. Congratulations to our top three finalists, Ava Galhatra, who finished third, Sebastian Kingzit, second, and first place was James Gobriel. That's it for this evening. Thank you, James. Okay, we have a few things we need to take care of here at the end of the year. 7.2 is the recommendation to establish date, time, and location of the January 2026 tax budget hearing and organizational meeting. I can't believe we're talking about 2026, but anyway. So we have on the agenda that the board designates the following day, place, and time for the 2026 tax budget hearing and organizational meeting to be January 14, 2026. We're looking at having it here. We think this is a great venue for this. The time would be 5.15 for the tax budget hearing and
092the org meeting to directly follow at approximately 5.30. So I guess we need a motion and a second to adopt this. One thing to keep in mind, by law, we have to have our org meeting by January 15. So we'll have to have the meeting over with before midnight at least. Anyway, Mike is like cringing. We consulted the incoming board members on this, correct? Yes. That's why we're at January 14. So do we have a motion and a second for time and place? So moved. Any questions or comments about this date and time and place? Okay. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Medjatt? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Okay. 7.3 also has to do with the organizational meeting. We have to appoint a board
093president pro tempore and this would be the person who will be running the meeting till we nominate another board president for next year, whoever that may be. So we need tonight to nominate somebody to be that pro tempore for the beginning of the meeting. So the floor is open for nominations. I can nominate James. Okay. Are there any other nominations for president pro tempore? I'll nominate James too. Okay. Well, we're doing nominations. Then we'll do the vote. I can nominate too? Yeah. He's already nominated so we're good. Is there anyone else? Hearing none, nominations are closed. So now everyone will just vote on James. Just vote on James. Okay. So we need a motion and a second? Okay. So we need a motion and a second? Motion. Second. So CJ and Todd. Okay. Any questions
094or comments? Voice vote it because there's only one nomination. You don't need to roll call it. Oh, we can just say all of them? Yeah. Because there's only one. Oh, I thought we still had to go through saying yes. What I mean is they don't have to state the name. Okay. Yeah. It's just for James. Yes, it's just for James. Right. We're saying yes or no, not anything. Right, right. Correct. Sorry, I confused it. Yes. That would at least go to roll. Mr. Paternay? Yes. Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Midgett? Yes. Okay. The next is 7.4. It's an approval of resolution 2025-24 to appoint the board member Todd Albright as District Auburn Career Center representative for a three-year term. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved.
095James? Second. Andrea? Any questions or comments? You're good with this, Todd? Yeah, you guys are. All right. Then would you please call the roll? Mr. Midgett? Yes. Mr. Paternay? Yes. Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. 7.5. Every year there's a rotation with the Auburn Career Center districts where they have a what they call a member-at-large. It's for a one-year term. So 7.5 is a resolution 2025-25 to appoint board member CJ Paternay as our member-at-large for a one-year term. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? You're also good with that? The only question I have is what happens if I go back to them or do I come back to a replacement? You would let this board know and then this board would appoint
096another member-at-large. Okay. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Midgett? Yes. Mr. Paternay? Mrs. Blakenship? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Okay. 7.6 is the approval of reimbursement for capital conference expenses for board of education number 2. Mrs. Clark? Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. What happened? Todd and James. Okay. Todd and James. Any questions or comments? I think it was beneficial. I mean the overwhelming, I'll say, theme of everything is public education funding is under attack. But yeah, I went to one on advocating and it was really advocating for public education money. That was not what I expected but it was a really good one. Yeah. So, and then we had the general business meeting which their legislative platform is going
097to be continuing advocating for public education properly so, yeah. I learned something every year ago. I love going. I'll go every year until I'm not a board member. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Dan, would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Majet? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mr. Paternetti? Sorry. Hard to forget about me. Because he was on the next page. I'm used to it. Okay. So, 7.7 is approval of reimbursement for capital conference expenses for board of education newly elected board of education member Ashish Guhotra. Do we have a motion and a second? I'll move. Second. Okay. Any questions or comments? Dan, would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Majet? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Okay. 7.8 is approval
098of reimbursement for capital conference expenses for newly elected board of education member Gordon Landys. Do we have a motion and a second? I'll move. Second. James? Any questions or comments? Dan, would you call the roll? Mr. Albright, you were first. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Majet? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. 7.9 is approval resolution 2025-28 for contract amendment for the superintendent. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Any questions or comments? I just want to say this year, as the VP, Karen, brought me in to help with contracts, that's one of my kind of duties, and I think every year people realize we do evaluate with a list of goals, both Dr. Hanlon and up next is Mrs. Armbruster, and they continually meet all the goals
099we lay out for them, and I don't think people realize not only within our district, but within our state. Deb has lots of treasurers coming to her for opinions. Dr. Hanlon leads the way for school funding, so we have two very good people here, and they're also continually aware of monetary. Their contract updates this year are remote days. They're not looking for any more money, so I think that's amazing of them to be able to do that. Two very hardworking people, so very good. We want to thank you for your continued dedication to the district and the state. Thank you. Anyone else would like to make comments or questions? Deb, would you please go ahead and roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Magiat? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mr. Albert? Yes. So now
100it's approval resolution 2025-29, contract amendment for the treasurer. Deb, do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? I think we'll just say ditto. Thank you. Thank you to both of you guys. You make a great team. So thank you. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mr. Albert? Yes. Okay. 7.11 is approval resolution of appreciation honoring board member Todd Albright for his years of service. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. James had the second. Okay. I'm going to let Deb get caught up here. Got it. Any questions or comments? Will I get a moment to say something or will that be afterwards? Sure. Well, yeah, we're going to do a whole thing here. Okay,
101cool. Unless you want to speak now. No, yeah. I just wanted to comment. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Feels tacky, but yes. Go ahead. Clark? Yes. Mr. Vidyat? Yes. And Mr. Paternitti? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Do you want to do them? Why don't we do them both together? Okay, we'll do approvals and then we'll do them. Okay. 7.12 is approval resolution of appreciation honoring board member CJ Paternitti for his years of service. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? So moved. Okay. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Deb, would you please call the roll? Got a sec. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Vidyat? Yes. Mr. Paternitti? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes.
102Okay, gentlemen, would you join us up front here? Oh yeah, you got it. We got Lucy down here. Okay, so we have a resolution of appreciation honoring board member CJ Paternitti for his years of service. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Deb, would you please call the roll? Okay, so we have a resolution of appreciation for Mr. Albright. Whereas Todd Albright has been an invested member of the Shard Local Schools Board of Education for four years. And whereas Todd Albright has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the Sharding Board of Education and to the students and staff of the Shard Local Schools. And whereas Todd Albright has contributed to the Board of Education and its Sharding Legislative Liaison, Auburn Career Center Representative and Vice President. And whereas
103Todd Albright has been an integral member and contributed to the Board of Education serving as the District Representative to the Auburn Career Center Board of Education. Whereas Todd Albright was instrumental in acquisition, planning and design of the District's Transportation and Business Affairs Complex completed in December of 2025. Whereas Todd Albright was essential in establishing comprehensive safety and security measures in all building, notably the installation of security vestibules and weapons detection systems. And whereas Todd Albright served with great commitment on various committees in addition to his regular responsibilities at the Board of Education. And whereas Todd Albright promoted district initiatives that contributed to sustaining the high levels of student achievement and fiscal stability. And whereas it is most fitting that his outstanding service and unquiring quest for excellence in our schools be recognized. Now therefore be
104resolved by the Shard Local Schools Board of Education that Todd Albright has hereby commended on his outstanding service to the school district. In witness of our recognition and best wishes for his future success, we hereby affix our new teachers on December 15, 2025. Thank you very much. Thank you Todd for all your good words. Thank you. We also have that for you and thank you for your leadership and commitment for our students. Thank you. We'll make a comment after this. Sure. You want to now? Sure. Yeah. I want to commend both of you. So when I ran on November, I really remember the slogan I had on my sign, community accountability. I want to say that you have an A plus rating so far as I can tell on both of you. Excellent job. And
105also have really good real estate spot for charter school signs. So if you ever need to put a sign up, I'll put one in my yard for you. Okay. CJ. Your resolution of appreciation for CJ Patternetti. Whereas CJ Patternetti has been an invested member of Chardon Local Schools Board of Education for four years. And whereas CJ Patternetti has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the Chardon Board of Education and to the students and staff of the Chardon Local Schools. And whereas CJ Patternetti has contributed to the Board of Education as its Chardon Schools Auburn Career Center representative, Student Staff Liaison and Chardon Area Chamber of Commerce Liaison. Whereas CJ Patternetti was instrumental in the acquisition planning and design of district transportation and business affairs complex completed in December of 2025. And whereas CJ Patternetti was essential
106in establishing comprehensive safety and security measures in all buildings. Notably the installation of security vestibules and weapons detection systems. And whereas CJ Patternetti served with great commitment on various committees in addition to his regular responsibilities as a board member. And whereas CJ Patternetti promoted district initiatives and contributed to sustained high levels of student achievement and fiscal stability. And whereas it is most fitting that his outstanding service and attiring quest for excellence in our schools be recognized. Now therefore it be resolved by the Chardon Local Schools Board of Education that CJ Patternetti is hereby committed on his outstanding service to the school district. And witness of our recognition and best wishes for his future success we hereby affix our signatures on December 15, 2025. So CJ, thank you CJ. Thank you. CJ, thank you for your
107leadership and commitment to the community. I'm not back. I want to say it was a pleasure working with both of you and I don't know if you noticed the commemorative plaque. But you will forever be part of Chardon Schools. Thank you. I wish the community itself would attend more of these meetings rather than grab me when I'm at the grocery store or with my kids. But it's been fun. I learned a lot. It's been great working with both of you and seeing what good you do do and everything that you provide even for my children that do attend here. So as an alumni and as a parent, I have children in the district. I appreciate everything you do. I hope it doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you. Appreciate both of you. Thank you. Okay, that brings
108us to new business. Do we have any new business tonight? No. Second hearing of the public for non-agenda items. We have none. That brings us to our meeting adjournment. So do we have a motion and a second? Our next date will be, well, we'll have our org meeting on January 14th and this next regular board meeting will be determined. Yes. So do a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Why does one say Merry Christmas to everybody and we'll see you next year. Merry Christmas. Would you please call the roll? Mr. Paternitti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Maget? Yes. Time 7.06 p.m. Thank you, everyone.